Papi spoils Darvish perfecto and no-no bid

Rougned Odor of the Texas Rangers reaches for a ball that falls between him and Leonys Martin against the Boston Red Sox in the sixth inning of Friday's game. The play was ruled an error, keeping alive a no-hitter for pitcher Yu Darvish. Darvish would lose his bid for the no-hitter with two outs in the ninth inning. (Ron Jenkins/Fort Worth Star-Telegram/MCT)

ARLINGTON, Texas — Texas Rangers pitcher Yu Darvish will be having flashbacks of facing Boston’s David Ortiz for a while.

Ortiz had the good fortune of breaking up Darvish’s perfect game in the seventh with a fly ball that resulted in an error. Then Ortiz poked the Red Sox’ first hit through the right side of the infield with two outs in the ninth.

So for the second straight season, Darvish lost a no-hit bid with two outs in the ninth. But the Rangers will take Darvish’s gem to the win column as Texas pounded Boston, 8-0, Friday night at Globe Life Park.

After Darvish retired the first 20 Red Sox batters in order, he appeared to be headed to the eighth inning with a perfect game. Ortiz, the designated hitter, hit a routine fly ball to right field, sending Rangers second baseman Rougned Odor, playing in his second major league game, deep into the outfield. Odor lunged for the ball in front of right fielder Alex Rios, but the ball fell to the turf and was scored an error on Rios.

Darvish then walked first baseman Mike Napoli before getting left fielder Grady Sizemore to fly out to Rios to end the inning.

Darvish gave up another walk in the eighth, this one to shortstop Xander Bogaerts, but he made it through the inning with his no-hitter intact after striking out Jackie Bradley Jr. to end the inning.

Darvish was perfect through five innings, striking out nine of the first 13 batters. He matched his season high for strikeouts in a game by that point.

Sizemore hit one of the few well-struck balls to left field, and Rangers left fielder Shin-Soo Choo almost misjudged the drive. But Choo leaped to make the catch for the second out of the fifth. Darvish then got Bogaerts to ground out to second to end the inning and remain perfect through 15 batters.

While Darvish was busy fanning the Red Sox batters, Texas pushed ahead with a run in the bottom of the first and two more in the third.

Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre lined a double into the gap in left to score shortstop Elvis Andrus from first to give Texas the initial lead.

Rangers first baseman Prince Fielder singled to center in the third to drive in Choo from second, and Andrus later scored on a sacrifice fly by Rios.

Texas exploded for five runs in the bottom of the fifth, highlighted by center fielder Leonys Martin’s two-run home run to right field that scored designated hitter Mitch Moreland and put the Rangers ahead 8-0.Notes: Boston was attempting to win three straight games for the first time all season. Coming in, the Red Sox had swept a two-game series against the Reds with a pair of 4-3 victories.